Our Tiny Little Man

I took Gabe to the doctor today for his 18-month check-up, and he is so TINY! I knew he was, but when he weighed in at only 20 lbs. 0.8 ounces, I was a little bit surprised. He's actually lost a little bit of weight in the last month or so. That puts him WAY below the 3rd percentile for his weight. He's down to about the 25th percentile for his height, so that's not super-great either. We're basically in the same place we were with Ladan at this age.

He's starting to eat less and less all the time, probably because of his teeth (they take forever to come in, and he has a really hard time with them). It's also entirely possible that he's a little bit anemic (he was a few months ago). He doesn't eat much meat at all and doesn't eat as many green veggies as he should, especially if he's going to boycott meat in any valuable quantity. We'll have his iron level checked in another couple of weeks at another appointment, so they didn't check it today. If he's still anemic, we'll go from there.

I absolutely love that my kids will eat fruits and veggies until the cows come home, but they really do need some of the proteins, fats and vitamins found in meat. Once Gabe gets a full set of molars fully through his gums, I think he'll start eating more and more. He doesn't seem to have the same aversion to meat that Ladan had (Ladan could pick tiny pieces of ground meat out of spaghetti in his mouth, eat around it, and spit the meat out)... he just doesn't want to eat more than a couple bites at a time. Ha! I just had a random thought. Maybe Ladan's early meat-extraction and spitting practices will help him when he's eating sunflower seeds on the baseball field in the future. I still cannot figure out how to put multiple seeds in my mouth at the same time, find the seeds, and spit out just the shells.

While the nurse was giving Gabe his shots, Ladan noticed that his brother was in distress (to put it mildly). A look of grave concern took over his face, and he started speaking very firmly to the nurse, "Hey! You keep hurting my brother!" and "STOP HURTING MY BROTHER!" I thanked him for protecting Gabe and explained that, even though it was hurting Gabe, she was being kind to him and was trying to help him. Then I made a mental note to prepare him in advance the next time.

Oh, and in the middle of all the chaos, I realized that I had to go to the bathroom really badly and I couldn't wait. Gabe had his shirt on, but since we were waiting for his shots, he had no pants, socks or shoes on. I was NOT going to let him down on the floor with bare feet in the pediatrician's bathroom.... Can you say DISGUSTING? I had to carry him in one arm, use the other arm to take care of myself, and try to go with a squirming toddler in my lap. Ladan kept dropping his car on the floor of the bathroom, and naturally he had to pick it up again, which required that he squat down, tip over a bit, and use his hands to steady himself... even worse than bare feet on the pediatrician's bathroom floor is pre-schooler hands on said floor. I finished up in a jiffy, we rushed back to the exam room, and I busted out the hand sanitizer for all three of us and the car... all with Gabe still dangling over my forearm.

You can see now that the Lord is gracious to reveal the sunny side of an otherwise irritating situation. I loved the fact that Gabe is a little man before we went to the doctor. I could have taken his weight measurement as a clue that I should be completely dissatisfied with his size and that I should rush home to shove his face full of every fatty thing under the sun just to make him grow right away. Then the Lord made me have to go to the bathroom so badly I couldn't wait (which hardly ever happens unless I am just now remembering that I had to go to the bathroom 4 hours ago and didn't do it). This rare emergency trip to the potty forced me to throw my squirming toddler over my arm and hold him the entire time I went to the bathroom, cleaned our extremities, and made it back to the exam room... long enough to remind me why it was that at first I loved having a 20-pound 18-month old!

For the rest of the night, I reminded myself that we do need him to eat more and I do need to figure that out, but at the same time, I really do think he's one of the cutest things I've ever seen! He has tiny hands, tiny feet, a little head, a perfectly little round belly, just the right amount of squish on his thighs, and the biggest eyes, smile, and dimples you ever did see! I love our tiny little man!